40 FU'CI. 



common with many other species, is the prepar- 

 ation of Kelp, a kind of salt, which is a principal 

 ingredient in the manufacture of soap. 



If the leaves of this plant receive a wound, while 

 growing, abundance of young shoots are thrown 

 out from the injured part ; and even if a hole or 

 rent be made in the middle of a leaf, a new one 

 will spring from each side of it. 



In Scotland, the Sea-tangle, Fu'cus digita'tus, 

 and the Dulse, Fu'cus palma'tus, are employed as 

 food ; and the stems of the former plant are some- 

 times used for making handles of knives. For this 

 purpose a thick stem is chosen, and cut into pieces 

 about four inches long ; the hilts of the knives are 

 stuck into these while fresh, and as the stem 

 dries, it contracts and hardens firmly around them. 

 These handles, when tipped with, metal, can 

 scarcely be distinguished from horn. The large 

 stalks of the plant are dried, and used as fuel, in 

 the Orkney and Shetland islands. 



The size that some of the larger kinds of sea- 

 weeds attain, and the rapidity of their growth, are 

 truly wonderful. The Gigantic Fu'cus, Fu'cus 

 gigante'us, is said to extend often to the length of 

 a thousand or fifteen hundred feet : and it grows 

 in such profusion, that the masses of it resemble 

 islands. In the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian 

 Oceans, there are vast tracts of sea-weeds; one 

 of which has been called by navigators the Grassy- 



